Vlada Haggerty: Copyright Infringement vs Hype

The point where creativity and copyright meet often leads to heated debates and the story of Vlada Haggerty isn’t an exception to that rule. Known for her mesmerizing makeup photography, her pictures have gathered a fair share of both fans and critics.

Below, we’ll discuss the boundary between copyright violations and the controversy around Vlada’s work. This story will help you get a better idea of how convoluted the process of handling one’s intellectual property can be in the modern digital world.

The name Vlada Haggerty is becoming more and more popular. Today many people know her as an accomplished and well-known fashion make-up artist and Instagram blogger. She has a popular Instagram page @vladamua with more than 630K followers.

Currently, Haggerty is building her brand as a Los Angeles-based artist. Her career started in 2011 as soon as she completed a professional course at the “Natalia Nayda Makeup School”.

This woman became extremely famous when she completed a project with Zoe Chicco. They came up with the idea of creating the most luxurious makeup ever done. It wasn’t even makeup – but a real art installation instead.

With the support of Smashbox Cosmetics, the stylist used more than 80 precious diamonds for one of her makeup creations. Overall, there were nearly 6.5 carats featured on the model’s beautiful face. This project played a huge part in popularizing Vlada’s makeup brand.

The artist successfully collaborates with such famous brands as Maybelline, GoverGirl, and Pat McGrath Labs, among many others. Additionally, her make-up and hairdos can be seen in advertising campaigns by Like a Lion (based in Australia), HOLE (currently in Germany), WHERE, Cosmopolitan, and Refinery.

Vlada’s popularity goes beyond her social media images, as she also hosts countless workshops, courses, and online meetings to help beginner beauty photographers and teach them her skillset and vision for makeup photography, encouraging them to express their own creativity and follow their passion.

On the 24th of September, 2016 Vlada posted a photo of the makeup she did for a model called Britt Rafuson. At that time, Vlada’s Instagram had more than 100K followers. The photo was taken by Julia Kuzmenko McKim.

The picture shows the woman’s fingers with golden powder, bold red lips, and white teeth that slightly peeked through. Another noticeable detail was the model’s fingers that covered her eyes. This photography idea has caught the attention of more than 22K followers and made Haggerty’s Instagram page even more popular.

Next month, Kylie Cosmetics uploaded a new image for their summer collection. The picture was taken by Marcelo Cantu.

Both Vlada’s followers and the makeup artist herself quickly noticed that the photo posted by Kylie Cosmetics was almost a pure copy of the image posted by Haggerty earlier.

Later that day, the makeup artist posted a side-by-side comparison of the two pictures, which launched the whole controversy between Vlada Haggerty and Kylie Jenner.

Jenner confessed that she committed the act of photography copyright violation. After several public quarrels, the conflict was resolved. Jenner published a post with photos made by Vlada and added a link to the Vladamua Instagram page.

The photo was posted on her private Instagram profile and the Kylie Cosmetics page. The post was accompanied by the caption “Check out the wonderful makeup art of @vladamua”.

Later, Vlada and her photographer Kuzmenko posted a response, in which they stated that they were glad that the case was successfully solved. They also thanked all the people who appreciated their art and the effort that they put into their work.

Another case of photo copyright violation concerning makeup product photography is connected to Louis Vuitton. The company simply used a logo for its advertising campaign, which copied images of Vlada Haggerty’s lip art.

Interestingly, Vlada had previously refused to sell those pictures to Louis Vuitton. After that, the company decided to create a logo based on her lipstick idea. Who was in the wrong here?

Haggerty made an official complaint against Make Up For Ever. Louis Vuitton was blamed for stealing Vladamua’s lipstick idea. The court that was held in Los Angeles confirmed the violation of Vlada’s copyright. According to their decision, Make Up For Ever definitely stole Haggerty’s lipstick idea after she refused to sell it to them.

This story began in 2015 when Vlada created two “dripping” lipstick looks that were published on her Instagram page and quickly became rather popular.

After that refusal, Louis Vuitton created a logo based on Vlada’s work. As you can see from the photos below, the company simply combined two of Vlada’s works into one logo for their ad campaign.

As soon as you compare the two photos, you’ll notice the undeniable similarity between them. However, the brand claimed that they had only adopted the used logo of Lustrous Cosmetics which had copied Vlada’s idea.

Currently, no final decision has been made in the court of law.

Nowadays, Vlada continues her career as a makeup artist and photographer. She not only creates beautiful looks for photoshoots and ad campaigns as well as photoshopping portraits but also actively collaborates with makeup brands like Le Mieux and CoverGirl to develop new products and concepts.

In addition to Vlada Haggerty’s Smashbox collaboration, she also actively participates in different creative projects, including photoshoots for fashion magazines, artistic and cultural events, as well as the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild's 11th Annual MUAHS Awards, while also hosting workshops and makeup courses.

Her work inspires thousands of people around the world, as she continues to share her art and experience via her social media platforms, encouraging her followers to experiment with beauty and self-expression.

Vlada Haggerty is an admired and glorified name in the beauty space. To put some more the talent by doses into the makeup artistry or photography: her complex projects were always handled for Maybelline, like CoverGirl, Pat McGrath Labs, and many other trickier tasks; the work she finally did featured in a plethora of ad campaigns and lesser-known facts buried ahead.

However, a series of cases for copyright infringement in which Vlada is included showed that surviving in the modern creative industry is rather complicated. Speaking of the dispute with Kylie Jenner or lawsuits filed by Louis Vuitton, to say that ensuring protection for one's exclusive rights is quite important.

This will in the process help creatives of any kind be on the safe side and avoid such exploitation since these much larger and more popular brands many times feel they can do whatever they want.

Are you looking for a way to create photos in Vlada Haggerty’s style? Then download our collection of presets that were inspired by her unique makeup and photography style. Gain access to the same effects and techniques that make her work so appealing.

However, I recommend that you start by learning how to add presets in Lightroom on Mac and Windows to ensure you know what you’re doing.